News

Council supports Upper Langlee regeneration plans

Scottish Borders Council has agreed to provide financial assistance to Waverley Housing to enable a large scale regeneration of Upper Langlee in Galashiels.

The estimated £21.5million housing-led project, which focuses on Beech Avenue, Hawthorn Road, Larch Grove and Laurel Grove, will see 115 new homes built over several phases, in addition to the refurbishment of some existing homes. The demolition of some existing housing blocks will be required as part of the scheme.

An initial masterplanning exercise has been carried out by Waverley Housing with the support of partners, including ARK Consultancy, Camerons Architects, Langlee Residents Association, and tenant and resident engagement has also been taking place.

At a meeting of the Executive Committee today (Tuesday 16 October), Councillors agreed to provide a grant of up to £300,000 from the Council’s affordable housing budget as a contribution towards Waverley Housing’s costs of acquiring six privately owned flats in Upper Langlee. This budget is topped up annually with around £710,000 from second homes council tax income.

Similar steps were taken to support Scottish Borders Housing Association to acquire eight privately owned flats to facilitate the Stonefield regeneration in Hawick.

Councillor Mark Rowley, Scottish Borders Council’s Executive Member for Business and Economic Development, said: “Waverley Housing has exciting plans for this important residential area of Galashiels and I am pleased that the Council has been able to provide further support to help unlock this regeneration project which will be funded by various partners.”

David Gordon, Chair of Waverley Housing, said: “We continue to work closely with a range of partners and our tenants and other Upper Langlee residents to develop final plans for this multi-million pound regeneration scheme.

“We are delighted that the Council has made this commitment today, and that we have its ongoing support for the overall project. The ongoing support and involvement of the Langlee Residents Association is also vital to the project and we will continue to provide regular updates on the progress of our plans.”

John Paterson, Director of ARK Consultancy said “we are really pleased that Scottish Borders Council has agreed to provide financial support to help enable the regeneration of Upper Langlee.

We have been working closely with SBC, Waverley and the local community during the master planning process and an exciting vision for the future of Upper Langlee has emerged.We need a big push now to realise the aspirations of local people and it’s great to see SBC giving such important backing to the regeneration plans.

We look forward to continuing to support Waverley Housing as the project progresses.

Notes to Editors:

The full report to the Executive Committee is available on the SBC website.

A selection of images courtesy of Waverley Housing is available to download from the SBC Flickr page. Please credit Camerons Architects if you use these images.